The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of panoramic pickup or recording camera --hereinafter conveniently referred to simply as a panoramic pickup camera-- for producing pictures with randomly large image or viewing angles which may exceed 360.degree. and wherein at the moment of light exposure the objective or film is held stationary, there further being provided a camera structure containing the objective and rotatable relative to a support, a film container and a film guide having a cylindrical domed or arched portion, the radius of which is equal to the focal length of the objective.
According to a prior art panoramic pickup camera of this type, as disclosed in Swiss Pat. No. 373,634, the film is supported over its entire width at the hollow cylindrically arched portion. This portion only extends over an angular range up to 180.degree.. A larger angular range is not possible because then light can no longer reach the objective. The film strip section which is to be exposed must be applied to the cylindrically arched portion prior to the swiveling and simultaneous exposure and must again be removed for taking a new picture and replaced by a new film strip section from the film container which is stationary in relation to the rotatable objective. This makes it complicated to work with the aforementioned prior art panoramic pickup camera.
There is also known to the art from German patent publication No. 1,208,174 a pickup or recording camera in which a camera structure together with the objective and a film container can be conjointly rotated relative to a static support or holder. In this case the film is delivered by a separate drive which is derived from the drive for the camera structure and is designed to rotate contra thereto, and specifically by means of a gearing drive. In order to achieve a good quality of the picture without disturbing over-exposed or under-exposed strips or blurred locations there is necessary an exact synchronization of the pivot drive and the contrarotating infeed drive. However, such synchronization can only be realized with an extremely precise gearing drive which is free of play and as a practical matter can hardly be realized. In another panoramic pickup camera working according to the same principle, as taught for instance in German patent publication No. 64,041, the coupling between the pivot drive and the film infeed drive is established by means of a friction drive instead of via a gearing drive, and which with respect to the accuracy of the synchronization can be even more problematic than the gearing transmission.